The cuts come as the company recorded its 16th consecutive quarterly loss. Big Blue has struggled with its core software business in the face of increasing cloud computing, analysts said.

A company executive told WRAL TechWire IBM is "aggressively transforming" to offer more cloud-based computing and could rehire just as many employees to assist in that effort as are being let go presently.

Some of the eliminated positions are being moved overseas, employees told the Journal.

"IBM is aggressively transforming its business to lead in a new era of cognitive and cloud computing," an IBM executive told TechWire. "To this end, IBM currently has more than 25,000 open positions, many in these key skills areas. If we meet our hiring targets, we expect our employee numbers to be roughly the same at year-end as they were in 2015."